...And That's Why We Made The Micro

It is the most affordable 3D printer that can be used right out of the box. Perfect for beginners and experts alike, just plug in the printer, download or create models, hit print, and watch your custom creations form right before your eyes.

The Micro is Designed For Everyone

Bring your ideas to
life, turn them into businesses, educate, learn, personalize products, make toys, make jewelry, start a curriculum, run a modern workshop, and unleash your creativity. The power of creation is yours!

A Fantastic 3D Printing Experience

We've built The Micro with reliability, consistency, and accessibility in mind. Micro Motion Technology is a sensor and feedback system built into the print head, providing auto-leveling and auto-calibration. This means that every time you run the printer it works, even after thousands of hours of use! The Micro is not only a useful tool, it makes 3D printing an enjoyable experience for the every-day person.

Material & Filament options

You can use PLA or ABS, as well as our Micro filament spools or standard 1.75 mm filament spools available on the market.

What's the difference? We made Micro filament spools so that people can print with more materials and colors, by adding $12 to their pledge amount per spool. These spools fit inside The Micro, allowing it to be portable and seamless. They weigh nearly 1/2 lb (225 g) of.That is enough material to make 45 of the vases from the time-lapse in our video!

The Micro filament spools are fed from inside the printer. Alternatively, you can use an external filament access port located on top of the extruder.

Software Options

3D printer software should be as fun and futuristic as the printer itself. That's why we've designed the M3D software to be as interactive and enjoyable as a game, making sure it’s fully touchscreen-capable with a minimalist and simple-to-use interface. It allows you to search and browse countless objects online, organizing 3D models you've downloaded into an easy to view library. Just pick a model, drag it into the printer, adjust the model if needed, and hit <print>. Software shouldn't be a barrier to 3D printing, and it’s our goal to make The Micro accessible to everyday users.

Advanced users can use the expert settings as well as other software such as open-source slicers.

How Did You Create The Micro?

Starting with a seamless design, the Micro evolved from two years of productive debates between engineers, artists and production experts. Since everyone was involved from the beginning, their vision of the product was fully integrated into the final result. This led to 15 innovations in the field of 3D printing and we are very honored to share the result of all that hard work with you.

But the work doesn't stop there. We want your feedback on The Micro, and help us build a community that can be a part of this exciting project.

15 Innovations

M3D has introduced many innovations in the field of filament-based 3D printing with the introduction of The Micro:

Designed & Assembled in The USA

The Micro was designed for assembly and production in the USA. We will use a combination of imported and domestic components to assemble all of the printers near our Bethesda, MD location.

Your Backing = Earlier Delivery

We're ready for production and really need your support to ramp up assembly to get printers to you as early as possible. We've been preparing for this stage for over a year by buying and testing parts from over 100 manufacturers and talking with hundreds more.

By pre-ordering now you’ll help us reach our
last crucial milestone: purchasing the injection molds that will provide us with high-quality, high-volume 3D printer parts we need to assemble the most affordable consumer 3D printer ever. In return, you'll get one of the first Micro 3D Printers and be an early adopter of this exciting project. For that we cannot thank you enough.

What's Included with My Reward?

Besides our eternal gratitude, we’ll assemble a Micro 3D Printer with great care in the US and send it to you along with M3D software, instructions manual, USB cable, country-specific power adapter, and one Micro filament spool. You can unbox it, install the software, and print right away - it’s as quick and as simple as that.

Why We Need You

As far as we've come, we've only just scratched the surface of what's possible using this technology. We need your help to take it further, and make The Micro a reality.

Production Timeline:

The Incredible M3D Team

Everyone at M3D has a single-minded focus to deliver an amazingly fun and fulfilling 3D printing experience for everyone. To get here has been very rewarding, and we've formed an amazing team of gems. We would like to give a special thanks to so many supporters, motivators, backers, team members, and advisors that helped us get to where we are so quickly:

Thanks For Your Support!

Risks and challenges

As with any innovative project, we face several key risks and challenges. The primary risks include:

INJECTION MOLDING
We consider this is our only significant risk. Injection molding has very large capital expenses and thus we can only secure one manufacturer. In addition, when making the specification for the seamless frame of The Micro, we demanded only the best quality surface finish. Injection molding is one part science and one part artistic optimization. Thus the mold may take up to 4 months to produce and perfect. For this reason we have put a great deal of careful planning and strategy into the sourcing of our injection molded parts such as working with suppliers in North America to ensure that the long lead time parts are closest to us.

SUPPLY CHAIN AND LOGISTICS
Before starting we noticed that some projects can encounter unexpected hurdles when going from prototype to production. That’s why we have done so much work to test The Micro with over 100 manufacturers to ensure that our designs are production ready and designed for both manufacturing and assembly. The last pieces to be ordered are the very expensive injection molds for plastic parts. To verify these designs we’ve had them CNC’d and 3D printed so that the injection molds are as close to our prototypes as possible.

FAQ

We are very excited to have international backers and have planned for your support. If you can register for an Amazon payments account, then you’ll be able to back us through Kickstarter. We’re also pleased to have worked out deals with major shipping providers to give international backers competitive rates.

Shipping will cost (roughly) $25 in the US and between $50-$75 for international backers. T-shirt shipping will cost much less. Shipping will be calculated and collected when we send the backer survey. This will be just before your rewards are sent to ensure the most fair shipping rates.

The Micro 3D Printers will be hand assembled by us in the USA with a mix of custom domestic and imported parts. We believe this is essential to bringing you a quality printer at an affordable price and on schedule.

Payment is not collected immediately. During the campaign, backers commit to fund their reward tiers at the end of the campaign. At the end of 30 days, if the campaign is successful, Amazon Payments will collect the funds through your Amazon account.

You can modify your pledge at any time to increase the amount. Please add $12 to your pledge for every roll of filament you’d like included with your Kickstarter reward. Please note that international shipping is calculated by weight, thus those backers may need to pay a little more for shipping for each extra rolls.

Through Kickstarter and Amazon payments, you’ll be able to pre-order your Micro by choosing one of the available rewards tiers and proceeding through to make your commitment. Payment is only collected if our campaign meets our target goal.

We designed The Micro to have two filament options. We provide each M3D Micro with a filament roll, which is almost 1/2 lb. roll (at least 200 grams) of standard filament (1.75 mm), tucked away inside the printer base. You can also use other material provider's filaments through a port at the top of the print head, or by re-winding your own Micro filament spools. Everything is open.

We are working with materials and filament manufacturers in the USA and the UK to provide the best quality filaments to you. We’ll be offering filament rolls through our website after the campaign, and eventually through our distributors. You can also use market standard 1.75 mm filaments.

The Micro can printer objects as tall as 116mm (4.6"). The base print area is 109mm x 113mm (4.3" x 4.5”). Above a height of 75mm the print base area is 91mm x 85mm (3.6” x 3.3”). A clear visual of the print area can be seen at http://themicro3d.com/#tech-specs

You can print between 50 micron and 350 micron layers. Most prints have the best print speed/quality balance between 150-250 micron resolution. The X/Y positioning resolution is 15 microns. However, the minimum feature size is defined by the printer’s nozzle diameter. Our standard nozzle diameter is 450 microns, but we’re looking into providing users with the option to purchase a smaller nozzle to print finer features.

We have spent the last year preparing for production, working with almost 100 manufacturers abroad and several dozen in the USA to produce and test the parts that we could. The remaining parts that have not been produced are the plastic injection molded parts. We’ve invested as much of our own friends' and families' funds as we could, and now we need the Kickstarter funds to help pay for the tooling required to make high volume production parts.

We invented many parts and systems to bring a 3D printer to market than has the look, the cost and the performance that we wanted. The design was accomplished through countless conversations between artists, engineers and production experts over the last two years. For a more complete explanation, please read our “How we did it” paper: http://www.printm3d.com/M3D-The_Micro-How_We_Did_It.pdf

We’re always happy to speak with enthusiastic and talented individuals, companies, manufacturers, volunteers, community members, and those who have suggestions that can help contribute to our goal of making 3D printing more accessible.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $199 or more
About $199

Super Early Bird Adopter: This level is for those who get in quick and want the best deal! Get The Micro 3D Printer at a very limited special price and help kick off our launch. You also get a special “early adopter” badge with your order. Comes with one filament spool. Shipping not included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $599 or more
About $599

Very Early Beta Adopter! You get the Micro 3D Printer from the second pre-production batch. Reward includes 3 filament spools, your name laser engraved on the printer, you will be included on our exclusive Beta feedback panel, we'll listen to your input, and send you exclusive updates. Shipping not included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $899 or more
About $899

Superstar Backers! You not only get the earliest possible fully functional Micro 3D Printer from the first pre-production batch but also 5 filament spools, your name laser engraved on the printer, and you will even be included on our exclusive Beta feedback panel. We'll listen to your input, and send you exclusive updates! Shipping not included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

Branded Special! We know you love our printer, but so does your office. We will make sure your printer is branded especially for your desk by allowing you to pick completely custom colors. Comes with 5 filament rolls. Shipping not included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10,000
About $10,000

Big Spender! You will not only get one of our amazing printers (laser signed by the team of course!) with 5 filament rolls, but you will also meet the team and have a tour around our offices to see where we first began the creation of The Micro. All this and a wonderful meal at our favourite restaurant. Flights are not included, but a great conversation is!